Trullion Alternatives for Partners Reviewing CAM Overcharges

Trullion Alternatives for Partners Reviewing CAM Overcharges

Trullion shows up in a lot of searches for "lease audit software." The name sounds right, and the product does touch leases. But if you are a partner helping a tenant review CAM overcharges, Trullion is not the tool you need.

This article clarifies what Trullion actually does, what it doesn't do, and what partners looking for forensic CAM reconciliation review should use instead.

What Trullion Actually Does

Trullion is a lease accounting compliance platform. Its primary function is helping companies meet ASC 842 (US GAAP) and IFRS 16 (international) lease accounting standards. These are financial reporting requirements that govern how leases appear on a company's balance sheet.

Its customers are typically:

• Public companies required to capitalize operating leases under ASC 842
• Accounting teams managing large lease portfolios for financial close purposes
• Landlords and property companies who need lease data feeding into financial reporting systems

Trullion's product automates lease data extraction, classification of operating vs. finance leases, and journal entry generation for compliant lease accounting. It integrates with ERP systems like NetSuite and SAP. That's a real and useful product, for the companies that need it.

What Trullion Does Not Do

Trullion does not perform forensic CAM auditing. It does not detect whether a landlord overcharged a tenant on management fees, calculated the tenant's pro-rata share incorrectly, violated a CAM cap, or passed through expenses the lease explicitly excludes.

Specifically, Trullion does not:

• Compare the landlord's CAM reconciliation statement against lease terms
• Flag line items that are ineligible under the client's lease
• Calculate whether management fees exceed the cap stated in the agreement
• Check whether gross-up provisions were applied correctly to the tenant's occupancy percentage
• Generate a dispute letter when overcharges are found
• Prepare partner-reviewed recovery documentation for a landlord discussion

ASC 842 compliance and forensic CAM auditing are entirely separate workflows. ASC 842 is about how companies report lease obligations in financial statements. A CAM audit is about whether the landlord billed the tenant correctly. These two things share the word "lease" and nothing else operationally.

"I've talked to CPAs who evaluated Trullion thinking it would help their clients with CAM disputes. It doesn't, and the confusion costs time. Trullion is accounting software. CAMAudit is a partner workflow for CAM review." - Angel Campa, Founder of CAMAudit

The Confusion, and Why It Happens

The overlap in language creates the confusion. Both Trullion and a CAM audit tool deal with lease documents. Both extract data from leases. Both produce reports that look like they're about lease compliance.

But "compliance" means something different in each context:

• In Trullion's world, compliance means the company's balance sheet accurately reflects lease liabilities under GAAP.
• In a CAM audit, compliance means the landlord charged the tenant what the lease actually says they can charge.

A tenant can be fully ASC 842 compliant, every lease properly capitalized, every journal entry correct, and still have CAM billing issues because the landlord's reconciliation included charges that may be excluded by the lease.

Those two problems require completely different tools.

What Partners Reviewing CAM Charges Actually Need

If a client received a CAM reconciliation statement and wants to know whether the charges should be reviewed, you need a forensic CAM audit workflow, not lease accounting software.

The workflow looks like this:

1. Pull the executed lease and the landlord's CAM reconciliation statement
2. Run detection rules against both documents, math checks for fee caps and pro-rata share, classification checks for excluded expense categories
3. Organize potential overcharges with draft dollar amounts
4. Generate documentation for partner, advisor, or counsel review

That's what a forensic CAM audit workflow supports. Trullion does none of those steps.

Alternatives for Partners Focused on CAM Review

CAMAudit for partner-led reviews

I built CAMAudit to help partners handle the detection and documentation steps. Route client lease materials and reconciliation statement through the partner workflow, and CAMAudit organizes CAM checks for review:

• Math rules (deterministic code): management fee overcharge, pro-rata share error, gross-up violations, CAM cap compliance, base year errors, controllable expense cap, true-up accuracy
• Classification rules (AI-assisted): expenses that shouldn't appear in CAM under the lease type, landlord overhead, capital improvements, excluded services, insurance overcharges, tax misallocations

When potential overcharges are found, CAMAudit generates a dispute letter draft grounded in the specific findings. The partner reviews the findings, applies professional judgment, and decides whether the client or counsel should send landlord correspondence.

CAMAudit uses public audit-pack pricing. Firms should compare pack cost, staff review time, and the client fee.

LeaseLens for Abstraction

If the client's problem is earlier in the pipeline, with a stack of leases and key terms that need to be extracted before audit review, LeaseLens handles lease abstraction. It pulls clause-level data from lease documents into a structured format. That output can then feed into an audit workflow.

LeaseLens doesn't do audit detection itself. It's a data extraction step, not a CAM review workflow.

Contingency Auditors for Large Portfolios

If a client has a large portfolio and wants outside negotiation support, a contingency firm like National Lease Advisors may fit. Compare the contingency economics, workflow cost, negotiation support, client preferences, and how much review work your firm wants to own.

The partner-led CAM review can help you review the workflow before comparing audit fee models.

See also: Contingency Fee vs. Flat-Fee CAM Audit for fee-model tradeoffs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Trullion detect CAM overcharges?

No. Trullion is an ASC 842 / IFRS 16 accounting compliance tool. It does not compare reconciliation statements against lease terms, does not run overcharge detection rules, and does not produce dispute documentation. If you are reviewing CAM billing for a client, you need a different workflow.

What is ASC 842, and why doesn't it help with CAM audits?

ASC 842 is a US GAAP accounting standard that requires companies to recognize operating lease liabilities on their balance sheets. It governs how lease obligations appear in financial statements. A CAM audit, by contrast, is a review of whether the landlord's billing matches what the lease says they can charge. One is a financial reporting requirement. The other is a billing accuracy check. They don't overlap.

I'm a CPA helping a client with their lease. Which tool applies?

If your client needs ASC 842 compliance for their financial close, Trullion may be relevant. If your client received a CAM reconciliation and you want to check whether it's accurate, whether the charges are permitted under the lease, whether the math is correct, that's a CAM audit. CAMAudit helps partners route lease and reconciliation materials through CAM checks, then review draft findings and a dispute letter draft before deciding the next client step.